Plan to Mollify Dissenting ECUSA Congregations Internally a 'Fantasy,' Journalist Says

by Jim Brown
January 7, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Christian journalist and lifelong Episcopalian is criticizing the ECUSA's presiding bishop for his treatment of congregations that oppose the denomination's unscriptural actions.

President Bishop Frank Griswold has been promising that the Episcopal Church USA will resolve its internal strife over the ordination of a homosexual bishop without help from Anglicans overseas. Griswold recently told American bishops that together they will devise their own means of providing "alternative pastoral care" for dissenting parishes.

But Christianity Today associate editor Doug LeBlanc says it is foolish for Griswold to ignore the new traditionalist Network of Confessing Parishes and Dioceses formed by the American Anglican Council.

"If Bishop Griswold wants to resolve this on his own without any help from the Archbishop of Canterbury, he's going to probably have to cooperate a good bit with the American Anglican Council," LeBlanc says. "If he thinks that he can devise a plan apart from that movement that somehow satisfies conservatives -- and the liberal bishops who are tormenting them -- he's living in a fantasy world."

According to LeBlanc, this is "uncharted territory" for his denomination. "There has been an effort at 'alternative Episcopal oversight' really ever since the Episcopal Church ordained women as priests back in the mid-1970s," he explains. "But what's different now is that the Archbishop of Canterbury and other primates have endorsed efforts at alternative Episcopal oversight."

LeBlanc says that increases the pressure on Griswold and other U.S. bishops to respect the conscience of congregations that object to the denomination's pro-homosexual actions. He adds that if liberal bishops were "more generous" toward dissenting congregations, the ECUSA would not have half the problems it does.